Limited Crazy Toyoshima Wedges!

As I mentioned in the post before about the Crazy Air Iron Forged, I had the chance to stop by the Crazy Factory and got to see the VERY limited Toyoshima grind wedge.  This is the secondedition of last years very popular Toyoshima set with some small changes. Last years 52 and 58 set featured a raw and unplated finish with the option of a milled face as an upgrade. The raw wedge rusted easily so Crazy decided that this years Toyoshima set, which is still a 52 and 58 set, would be nickel chrome plated with a brushed satin finish.

The wedge also has a cnc milled face now as standard. I have to say this one very good looking wedge. Each set is hand grinded by Toyoshima Daiki ,who has 22 years of tour and grinding experience, creating beautifully finished special tear drop shaped heads with straight necks and versatile trailing edge grinds on this premium Himeji forged CC-B104 wedge. Toyoshima-san personally polishes every single wedge and inspects each finished product for shape, weight and proper set up at address. Toyoshima-san wanted to make a versatile grind and decided on a narrower sole with lots of trailing edge relief. The bounce on the 52* is lower at 6* for crisp approaches while the high 12* bounce on the 58* excels in the sand and with its grind is easily opened up to play various shots in various lies.

Last years 50 sets were sold out in two weeks. I had originally come away from the Crazy Factory thinking this year had 50 sets as well and that’s what I noted when I added the Toyoshima wedge to the pro shop. However I found out today that Crazy had only decided on 12 sets, TWELVE SETS, for all of Japan. Since the set was added to our pro shop on Monday, we have already sold 7 sets and Crazy is now sold out.  Not bad for TSG to account for more than half of a limited release!

PERSONAL FITTINGS AT CRAZY FACTORY

While I was at the Factory for taking pictures of new products from Crazy, my main reason was in fact to custom fit one of our customers who was in Japan on holidays. I had the pleasure of meeting our very good customer Clive Mayhew from Australia who met me at the Crazy Factory in Adachi on Saturday morning for a fitting. Since Clive was in Japan playing golf, he was able to bring along his current Ryoma V-Spec driver and Mizuno MP-59 6 iron for the fitting.

The Crazy factory is a nice and comfortable place for fittings and their full workshop as well as several pros are on hand as well for instant spec checks and launch monitor analysis.  The staff are always very friendly and on Saturday I worked along with Crazy pro Muramatsu Taka to fit Clive for a driver shaft, fairway woods, iron and wedge shafts.

We were looking for a driver shaft to put in his new Ryoma Special Tuning driver so we put Clive up on the monitor first with his Ryoma V-Spec 10.5* with stock Stiff Flex shaft. Before taking his first swing, I asked Clive some questions about his swing and what his typical distances were. He told us he hit is driver around 250y on average however even with the 10.5* he was not getting a lot of launch. His first swing on the monitor provided us with exactly what he described:

Total distance: 250y
Head Speed:  102mph
Launch Angle 9.2*
Back Spin: 3250
Side Spin: 255 left

Clive hit a few more with his stock V-Spec all with similar results, around 250y, launch under 10* and back spin always over 3000rpm. I right away turned to Crazy pro Taka and said “Longest Yard 01 Hot Black”. So we pulled out a CRZ435 10* head matched with the high launching Hot Black in 7.4 or stiff flex.

On Clive’s first strike with this combo the numbers improved SIGNIFICANTLY as shown below:

Total distance: 271y
Head Speed:  102mph
Launch Angle 16.0*
Back Spin: 2750
Side Spin: 54 left

Clive consistently hit the Hot Black between 265 and 275y with his best drive being a soft little fade to 278y!:

Total distance: 278y
Head Speed:  107mph
Launch Angle 13.7*
Back Spin: 2500
Side Spin: 263 right

You can see as Clive got more comfortable with the Crazy combo his head speed actually increased and some of the speed and distance up can also be attributed to the Crazy combo actually being about 10g lighter and 0.75″ longer than his Ryoma setup. But most the gain comes from a much healthier launch and less spin giving much better carry plus run out equaling a whopping 15-20y on average gain. Clive has very good form and looks great at the top. He has a bit of a hip swaying movement but is quite strong through the impact zone. With his Ryoma, the softer stock shaft caused some inconsistencies and created more spin. This coupled with Clive’s tendency to hit down a bit brought the spin up. His angle of attack and the flex of the shaft actually delofted the club at impact hence the low launch angle.  The higher grade carbon of the Crazy shaft equals less bowing of the shaft and very consistent timing on release. Clive noticed this and noted he could feel the shaft work itself and he could just swing away.

We did of course try other shafts including the Crazy Black 50 which launched too low, the Royal Decoration which was too light overall causing Clive to go left. The CB46 and TJ46 which both did not give as much distance as the Hot Black and also the 80t Black TJ80 which caused very strong fades as its a tough shaft to turn over on. In the end none matched Hot Black which is designed to be the high launching shaft for strong players and as part of the black line keeps the left out – Clive was mostly straight or with a soft fade but had the best overall numbers and consistency with the Hot Black and that’s what counts.

We also fit Clive for a 3 wood and 5 wood and he ended up getting a JBeam FX HG 15* with Longest Yard FW Evolution in 7.4 flex and a JBeam FX HG 18* with Black FW80 in 7.4 Flex.  Clive was cranking out the JBeam 3 wood tester  over 240y and nearly equaling his stock Ryoma Driver (that pretty much decided it for him). Clive also tested on the monitor with his MP-59 6 iron which was shafted with a DG S300 shaft. Most of his shots were soft to strong draws and I ended up picking out the Crazy Target Tour 120’s in the tinted dark chrome and stiff flex which not only made his shots very very straight but he actually gained nearly a club’s distance over the S300! With the Crazy workshop right there, we had Clive’s irons reshafted with the Target Tour 120’s and all 3 of his Vokey Forged wedges remade with Target Tour 120 Wedge shafts. At the end of the day it was not only a pleasure fitting Clive and seeing him happy with his choices but to be able to meet one of our customers face to face is always a highlight for me.

As many of you know I fit hundreds of TSG customers over the course of the year. It is not an easy task with much of it, actually most of it being done over the internet. With a lack of data it can be quite a challenge. I do have customers who send me launch monitor data and even videos of their swing but in the end nothing beats fitting a customer in person.  What I’ve learned from fitting Clive at the Crazy Factory is we’d like to invite any customers who are interested in Crazy products and happen to be vacationing or visiting Tokyo to contact us for a possible fitting session at Crazy with myself and a Crazy Pro. We all know, JDM clubs and shafts are not cheap, being fit and getting the right ones make them worth substantially more to each individual’s score and enjoyment of the game of golf.  We look forward to hearing from you and meeting you if you do end up coming by!